THE  NEMESIS  OF 
ARMAMENTS 


By 

CHARLES  EDWARD  JEFFERSON,  D.  D. 


Reprint  from  The  Independent 
New  York,  August  17,  1914 


CHURCH  PEACE  UNION 
70  FIFTH  AVENUE 
NEW  YORK 


NEMESIS  OF  ARMAMENTS 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2014 


https://archive.org/details/nemesisofarmamenOOjeff 


The  Nemesis  of  Armaments 


By  CHARLES  EDWARD  JEFFERSON,  D.D. 

Reprint  from 
The  Independent,  New  York,  August  17.  1914 

From  the  awful  spectacle  of  Europe  plunged  into  war 
two  clashing  conclusions  are  certain  to  be  drawn. 

The  first  and  most  obvious  conclusion  is  that  the 
Pacifists  are  in  a  hole.  They  have  been  mistaken  all 
along,  and  now  their  delusion  is  exposed.  They  have  long 
been  suspected  of  being  visionaries  and  dreamers,  but  now 
the  last  doubt  of  it  has  vanished. 

In  the  glare  of  the  huge  conflagration  the  peacemakers 
cut  a  sorry  figure.  A  metropolitan  newspaper  editor 
scoffs  at  them  as  an  "absurd  group"  on  whom  little 
sympathy  need  be  wasted.  He  notes  that  they  are  not 
saying  anything  just  at  present  and  intimates  that  they 
should  forever  hold  their  peace.  Such  men — to  quote  one 
of  our  most  distinguished  fellow-citizens — are  not  only 
useless  but  mischievous. 

The  militarists,  on  the  other  hand,  have  been  right 
from  the  beginning.  All  that  they  have  said  is  true. 
Man  is  a  fighting  animal.  Human  nature  cannot  be 
changed.  Nations  have  always  fought,  and  therefore 
they  always  will  fight.  War  soon  or  late  is  inevitable. 
The  only  sensible  thing  is  to  get  ready  for  it. 

The  present  predicament  of  the  peace-workers  is  put 
graphically  by  a  journal  whose  name  the  reader  is  left 
to  guess.    "It  is  in  no  gloating  spirit  that  we  call  the 

5 


attention  of  the  Andrew  Carnegies,  the  David  Starr 
Jordans  and  other  misguided  peace  enthusiasts  to  the 
vindication  of  the  position  of  this  journal  which  is  fur- 
nished by  this  war  array  on  the  Danube.  What  has 
become  of  that  army  of  bogies  with  which  Mr.  Carnegie, 
Dr.  Jordan  and  others  had  peopled  the  imaginations  of 
the  unthinking?  The  roar  of  the  guns  in  southeastern 
Europe  has  awakened  those  peace  gentlemen  from  their 
foolish  dream,  and  their  phantom  host  of  spooks  has 
vanished  into  air." 

This  is  so  good  that  it  is  sure  to  be  quoted  all  over  the 
country,  and  many  trustful  persons  will  repeat  it,  sup- 
posing that  it  is  an  accurate  statement  of  facts.  Let  us 
look  into  it  a  little,  and  find  out,  if  we  can,  more  about 
the  character  and  fate  of  these  spooks. 

It  should  never  be  forgotten  that  there  are  two  kinds 
of  dreamers,  and  that  there  are  two  different  species  of 
spooks. 

It  is  in  no  gloating  spirit  that  we  call  the  attention  of 
the  editor  of  the  aforementioned  journal,  and  other  mis- 
guided armament  enthusiasts,  to  the  vindication  of  the 
position  of  the  peace-workers  which  is  furnished  by  this 
European  war  array. 

What  has  become  of  that  army  of  bogies  with  which 
the  editors  of  Sunday  papers  have  peopled  the  imagina- 
tions of  the  unthinking? 

It  would  be  saying  too  much  to  assert  that  the  roar 
of  the  European  guns  has  awakened  these  armament- 
loving  gentlemen  from  their  foolish  dreams,  for  some 
men  will  probably  never  be  awakened  from  their  foolish- 
ness till  the  final  blast  of  the  Judgment  Day,  but  we  ven- 
ture to  call  the  attention  of  all  men  who  are  awake  to  the 
dramatic  vanishing  of  the  phantom  host  of  spooks  with 

6 


which  the  militarists  have  peopled  the  imagination  of  the 
world. 

It  will  be  profitable  for  us  to  consider  these  spooks  one 
by  one. 

Spook  Number  One 

"Armaments  are  the  only  sure  guarantee  of  peace." 
We  have  heard  it  a  thousand  times  from  men  who  seemed 
to  know.  It  has  been  published  in  a  thousand  volumes 
and  in  ten  thousand  papers,  and  so  men  came  to  accept 
it  as  the  truth.  When  now  and  then  war  seemed  to 
threaten,  we  were  assured  that  all  would  be  well  if  the 
armament  could  be  somewhat  increased. 

Thru  thirty  years  the  work  of  increasing  armaments 
has  gone  merrily  on.  It  was  in  this  way  that  sensible 
men  worked  for  peace.  The  experts  in  these  high  matters 
were  confident  that  a  nation  by  making  itself  formidable 
insured  itself  against  attack.  Safety,  they  said,  depends 
on  thickness  of  armor,  and  the  only  way  to  conserve  the 
peace  is  to  so  load  nations  down  with  weapons  that  no 
one  of  them  will  dare  to  fight. 

This  doctrine  was  especially  convincing  to  Russia  and 
Germany,  and  so  they  have  gone  on  adding  new  battalions 
until  the  dimensions  of  their  armies  have  astonished  the 
world.  In  these  two  empires  the  militarist  ideal  had  been 
well-nigh  reached.  The  armament  on  both  sides  was  so 
enormous  that  peace  was  guaranteed ! 

Armament  is,  of  course,  expensive,  and  statesmen  have 
long  been  at  their  wits'  end  to  finance  these  vast  military 
preparations.  Parliaments  have  at  times  grown  obstrep- 
erous, but  they  have  always  succumbed  to  the  plea  that 
the  increased  budgets  were  necessary  to  safeguard  the 
interests  of  peace. 

7 


The  people  have  been  growing  increasingly  restless,  but 
their  murmuring*  have  been  quieted  by  assurances  that 
all  this  increased  taxation  would  secure  for  them  the 
blessings  of  peace. 

Not  an  appropriation  for  the  increase  of  army  or  navy 
has  been  past  within  the  last  twenty  years  in  any  parlia- 
ment in  the  world,  which  has  not  been  secured  by  men 
who  were  pleading  for  peace.  That  armaments  guar- 
antee peace  was  a  dogma  which  it  was  blasphemy  to 
dispute. 

When  holes  were  punched  in  the  doctrine  by  the  Russo- 
Japanese  war,  and  by  the  Spanish- American  war,  and  by 
the  Balkan  war,  the  holes  were  covered  over  by  the  broad 
facts  that  Germany  had  not  used  her  army  for  a  genera- 
tion, and  that  England's  fleet  had  never  fired  a  gun. 
The  peace  of  Europe — so  all  the  wise  men  said — was  due 
to  armaments. 

It  was  a  lie,  and  the  lie  is  now  being  shot  to  pieces 
before  our  eyes. 

It  speaks  well  for  the  peaceful  temper  of  the  peoples 
of  Europe  that  they  stood  the  strain  so  long.  Armaments 
are  provocative  of  war.  You  may  increase  them  for  a 
season,  but  at  last  you  receive  the  retribution  which  you 
invited. 

The  least  surprised  men  in  the  world  today  are  the 
men  who  for  many  years  have  been  protesting  against 
armaments.  They  may  be  dreamers,  but  the  silly  dream 
that  armaments  are  guarantees  of  peace  never  entered 
their  mind. 

For  a  generation  they  have  been  crying  out  against  the 
waste  and  wickedness  of  the  policy  of  "Armed  Peace." 
They  have  said  in  season  and  out  of  season:  "This  can- 
not go  on.    This  must  not  go  on.    It  is  a  crime  against 

8 


humanity.  It  will  drag  the  world  back  into  barbarism. 
It  will  end  in  a  tragedy  which  will  darken  the  heart  of 
mankind." 

The  peace-workers  are  not  so  guileless,  and  ignorant, 
and  impractical  as  they  are  painted.  They  know  history, 
and  they  understand  human  nature,  and  they  are 
acquainted  with  the  laws  of  the  world  they  are  living  in. 
Their  grip  on  the  facts  and  laws  of  life  is  not  the  grip 
of  men  who  are  asleep.  They  are  familiar  with  every 
move  that  has  been  made  in  the  last  thirty  years.  The 
man  who  imagines  that  they  are  soft  and  green  is  dream- 
ing. He  is  in  the  grip  of  a  spook.  What  the  peace- 
workers  have  said  from  the  beginning  is  now  being 
confirmed. 

In  the  fierce  light  of  the  European  conflagration  even 
blind  men  ought  to  be  able  to  see  that  armaments  are  not 
guarantees  of  peace. 

Spook  Number  Two 

"Armaments  are  a  form  of  national  insurance."  The 
doctrine  has  been  promulgated  thruout  the  world.  The 
insurance  comes  high,  but  we  must  have  it.  A  man  in- 
sures his  house;  a  nation  must  insure  itself.  Compare 
the  annual  cost  of  an  army  and  navy  with  the  aggregate 
wealth  of  a  country,  and  any  one  can  see  that  military 
and  naval  expenses  are  a  mere  bagatelle. 

This  has  been  taught  by  men  who  had  the  air  of  Sir 
Oracle.  When  they  opened  their  lips,  not  a  dog  dared 
to  bark. 

Six  nations  of  Europe  went  into  this  scheme  of  insur- 
ance.   Within  the  last  thirty  years  they  have  paid  in 


premiums  six  billion  five  hundred  and  ninety-two  millions 
of  dollars,  and  now  they  find  they  are  not  insured  at  all. 

Some  fool  in  southeastern  Europe  threw  a  lighted 
match,  and  instantly  all  Europe  was  in  flames.  Why? 
The  whole  house  had  been  saturated  with  kerosene. 

Military  and  naval  budgets  are  not  insurance,  they  are 
kerosene.  Their  function  is  to  render  a  nation  inflam- 
mable. Europe  had  been  so  repeatedly  drenched  with 
kerosene  that  one  match  was  sufficient  to  start  an  instan- 
taneous and  continent-wide  conflagration:  Russians,  Ger- 
mans, Frenchmen,  Englishmen,  all  heard  at  once  the  roar 
of  the  blazing  rafters  above  their  heads.  The  house  is 
burning,  and  now  other  billions  of  dollars  must  be  ex- 
pended in  putting  out  a  fire  which  was  made  possible  by 
the  very  means  which  were  devised  to  prevent  it.  Another 
spook  has  vanished  into  air. 

If  one-tenth  of  the  treasure  spent  by  Europe  in  the  last 
thirty  years  upon  her  armaments  had  been  devoted  to 
building  rational  safeguards  against  war,  the  present 
catastrophe  would  never  have  blighted  the  world. 

Spook  Number  Theee 

"Only  by  armaments  can  liberty  be  safeguarded  and 
justice  secured."  The  advanced  nations  must  protect 
themselves  from  the  insults  and  assaults  of  the  backward 
nations,  and  weak  nations  when  attacked  must  be  defended 
by  the  strong.  Tyranny  must  not  be  permitted  to  rage 
unchecked,  and  cruelty  must  not  be  allowed  to  work  its 
infamies  unpunished.  Armaments  are  the  natural  pro- 
tection of  righteousness  and  truth. 

It  sounds  plausible,  but  it  is  false.  For  years  Abdul 
the  Damned  allowed  his  Christian  subjects  to  be  butch- 


ered,  and  altho  Christian  nations  stood  round  and  watched 
the  streams  of  flowing  blood,  they  did  not  lift  a  hand  in 
defense  of  the  helpless.  They  could  not.  They  were 
bound  hand  and  foot  by  their  armaments. 

The  other  day  the  Balkan  states  were  fighting  each 
other  with  a  ferocity  surpassing  that  of  savages,  commit- 
ting atrocities  which  in  devilish  cruelty  have  never  been 
exceeded,  and  the  great  Christian  Powers — like  so  many 
huge  and  unwieldly  brutes — stood  in  armor,  impotent, 
watching  the  frightful  carnage  go  on,  all  of  them  so 
weighted  down  with  steel  that  not  one  of  them  could  move. 

That  mighty  armies  are  an  efficient  instrument  for  the 
establishing  of  justice  or  the  rescue  of  the  oppressed  is 
another  of  the  spooks.  In  the  light  of  recent  experience 
it  has  vanished  into  air.  No  doubt  certain  dreamers  will 
go  on  dreaming.  All  men  who  are  awake  know  that 
swollen  armaments  block  the  way  of  justice  and 
jeopardize  the  liberties  of  mankind. 

Spook  Number  Four 

"Only  by  great  armies  and  navies  can  we  have  inter- 
national law  and  order."  The  Hague  Conferences  at- 
tended to  various  important  matters,  but  they  left  arma- 
ments untouched.  By  establishing  certain  rules  of  pro- 
cedure, and  laying  sundry  restrictions  on  combatants,  it 
was  thought  by  some  that  the  nations  would  gradually 
turn  their  feet  into  the  paths  of  peace.  It  was  a  delusive 
expectation. 

The  militarists  are  willing  that  all  sorts  of  conventions 
shall  be  agreed  to,  if  only  the  big  armies  and  navies  are 
left  intact.  They  have  no  objection  to  Red  Cross  Socie- 
ties, and  to  arbitration  treaties,  and  to  the  neutralization 

11 


of  certain  territories,  but  they  insist  that  the  armaments 
shall  not  be  reduced. 

After  each  of  The  Hague  Conferences  all  armaments 
were  increased.  This  is  because  Christendom  is  in  the 
hands  of  the  militarists,  and  for  a  generation  they  have 
worked  their  will. 

It  is  idle  to  talk  of  the  observance  of  conventions  and 
treaties  so  long  as  nations  rely  on  their  armies  and  navies 
for  the  accomplishment  of  their  purpose.  Italy  stole 
Tripoli  because  she  had  an  army.  Austria  stole  Bosnia 
because  she  had  an  army.  Armies  enable  nations  to  steal. 
Armies  make  it  easier  to  steal.  Navies  combined  with 
armies  make  it  easier  still. 

Germany  bound  herself  by  a  treaty  to  respect  the  neu- 
trality of  Luxemburg,  but  when  the  hour  arrived,  Ger- 
many sent  her  army  thundering  thru  Luxemburg  defying 
the  treaty,  for  mighty  armies  are  not  to  be  halted  in 
their  courses  by  the  gossamer  threads  of  treaties. 

No  wonder  the  House  of  Commons  laughed  at  Ger- 
many's promise  not  to  keep  any  of  Belgium  at  the  end  of 
the  war.  In  the  act  of  trampling  on  one  promise,  she 
could  hardly  expect  to  be  trusted  in  making  another. 
No  nation  can  be  expected  in  time  of  excitement,  with  a 
huge  sword  in  her  hand,  to  be  scrupulous  about  promises 
made  long  ago. 

If  nations  dress  like  brigands,  they  will  come  at  last 
to  act  like  brigands. 

Conscience  atrophies  under  armorplate.  European 
diplomacy  has  been  frightfully  debauched  and  degraded 
by  the  frenzied  piling  up  of  guns. 

Men  are  not  likely  to  rely  on  reason  when  they  have  at 
their  elbow  a  mass  of  steel  on  which  they  can  lean.  They 
are  not  inclined  to  wait  patiently  for  the  slow  processes 

12 


of  diplomacy,  when  they  can  do  things  much  quicker  with 
the  sword.  The  notion  that  nations  can  be  trusted  to 
keep  their  word  and  are  more  certain  to  work  for  the 
higher  interests  of  mankind  when  they  expend  a  large 
part  of  their  revenues  on  instruments  of  destruction  is 
another  spook  which  lias  vanished  into  air. 

Europe  is  uttering  a  solemn  warning  to  America.  The 
old  world  is  speaking  to  the  new.  Ancient  monarchies  are 
offering  counsel  to  our  young  Republic. 

For  a  generation  we  have  been  aping  Europe.  The 
ideal  of  Washington  and  the  other  founders  of  our  nation 
has  been  fading  from  many  eyes.  To  not  a  few  Germany 
has  become  a  model.  We  have  adopted  many  of  the  old 
world  customs. 

We  have  a  Navy  League,  and  we  launch  our  Dread- 
noughts with  the  playing  of  bands,  and  the  hurrahs  of 
high  state  officials.  We  have  our  annual  war-scares  and 
our  annual  naval  reviews — all  just  like  Europe! 

We  have  our  swelling  naval  budgets,  and  our  niggardly 
appropriations  for  the  causes  of  social  betterment,  after 
the  European  fashion. 

We  have  our  interminable  chatter  about  hypothetical 
attacks  and  conjectural  perils,  and  the  incessant  speech- 
making  and  magazine-writing  and  book-making  of 
Colonels  and  Commodores,  Admirals  and  Generals,  active 
and  retired,  just  as  it  is  all  done  in  Europe. 

We  have  squandered  millions  of  dollars  on  fortifications 
in  the  Philippines  and  other  millions  in  Hawaii  and  we 
are  about  to  squander  other  millions  in  Panama. 

We  have  spent  in  a  few  years  over  two  billion  dollars 
on  our  navy,  and  this  is  but  a  trifle  compared  with  what 
we  are  going  to  spend,  if  the  naval  oligarchy,  intrenched 
in  Washington  city,  has  its  way. 

13 


We  have  learned  to  talk  glibly  about  naval  tonnage, 
and  naval  prestige,  and  to  admire  fourteen-inch  guns, 
and  to  publish  pictures  of  battleships  even  in  religious 
papers.    They  do  it  that  way  in  Europe! 

We  have  even  begun  to  send  our  boys  to  summer  mili- 
tary camps,  and  are  considering  the  advisability  of  intro- 
ducing military  instructors  into  our  colleges  and  making 
target  practice  a  part  of  the  high  school  curriculum. 
We  have  caught  the  fever.    We  are  in  the  race. 

And  now  Europe,  being  in  torment,  calls  to  us :  "0 
Republic  of  the  West,  do  not  follow  my  example!  There 
are  ways  which  seem  right  to  a  nation,  but  they  lead  down 
at  last  to  the  chambers  of  death.  Do  not  believe  the 
creed  which  we  have  long  accepted.  Armaments  are  not 
guarantees  of  peace.  They  are  not  insurance.  They  are 
not  instruments  of  reason  or  righteousness.  They  create 
first  suspicion,  then  hatred,  and  at  last  lead  young  men 
by  the  million  to  the  fields  of  blood.  Do  not  choose  the 
path  which  we  have  followed.  Work  out  your  destiny 
along  a  different  line.  Make  the  new  world  different 
from  the  old.  Beware  of  guns.  Banish  the  implements 
of  hate  from  your  eyes.  Take  your  mind  off  the  machin- 
ery of  slaughter.  Cease  to  delight  in  the  engines  of 
destruction.  Trust  in  reason.  Have  faith  in  brother- 
hood. Believe  in  love.  Build  your  civilization  on  the 
principle  of  good  will.  Bind  all  the  nations  of  the  West- 
ern Hemisphere  into  a  federation  which  by  its  fidelity  to 
the  law  of  kindness  and  its  devotion  to  the  Prince  of  Peace 
shall  become  at  once  the  inspiration  and  hope  of  the 
world !" 


14 


